Jussie Smollett has Been Arrested

Why do people lie when the truth always comes back around to bite them anyways.

Jussie Smollett has officially been arrested and is being charged with disorderly conduct and for allegedly filing a false police report. The Empire actor turned himself in, having been charged with the class four felony on Wednesday, and now faces up to three years in prison. Talk of Smollett possibly having staged the attack in mid February, two men were detained and questioned as suspect, however rumors quickly began swirling that Smollett had in fact orchestrated the whole thing. The idea was, he planned the whole attack because he was going to be written off Empire. These claims were quickly shot down by both the shows executives and the Chicago Police Department. However days later the two men in question were released and the police department notified media outlets that the trajectory of their investigation had shifted and they would now be investigating Smollett’s role in the attack. On Wednesday, Feb. 20, Smollett was named a suspect and charged with his crimes, and turned himself in this morning, Thursday, Feb. 21.

“Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense,”

Read a statement released by Smollett’s attorney.

This story has taken so many twists and turns and everyone’s emotions have been on edge. It’s a high profile case and everyone has an opinion on it depending on their prior experiences in life and the social categories they belong to. When the initial story came out, my heart immediately went out to him and I couldn’t believe so much hate could exist in this world. I even defended him when fans began questioning the validity of his story. Then I began to also see the holes in his story and was a little skeptical but I told myself not to make snap judgements until the police had conducted their investigation. Now that they have and he has been charged and arrested, my opinion on Jussie Smollett has changed completely.

In my opinion, what Jussie Smollett did, whether this was intentional or not, was create fear and anger among the gay community and its allies. In the initial reporting it was said that the supposed assailants were wearing MAGA hats and shouting pro Trump homophobic slurs at him as they beat him. In a world where so much hate and distrust already exists, where so many already feel so much anger towards the current administration, why add more? Why lie? Show your discontent and anger in a different way that won’t discredit your cause and the work so many others are doing, but that will also keep you out of jail. It was rumored he did this because he was going to be written off of Empire but now he definitely will, so he really achieved nothing. Who’s to say this won’t promote others to plan a similar attack and then claim the whole thing was planned. I don’t know, I’m just not a fan of this whole situation.

A bond hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 21 at 1:30 p.m. local time.